Re: S u p e r m a n: R e b i r t h

Henry Cavill‘s Superman will fly solo again in a sequel to “Man of Steel” going into active development at Warner Bros., a person familiar with the project told TheWrap.

Released in 2013, produced by Christopher Nolan and directed by Zack Snyder, “Man Of Steel” earned $668 million at the global box office and launched the ambitious DC Cinematic Universe. This summer’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” which picked up where that film left off, has pulled in $872 million.

Despite Superman’s battle with Batman, DC has been silent on a sequel to “Man of Steel” featuring Superman solo, leading many frustrated fanboys to believe that another film wasn’t going to happen. But a person close to the project told TheWrap that Superman is a top priority for the studio and getting the character right for audiences is of tantamount importance.

Warner Bros. did not immediately return a call for comment Monday.

Back in October 2014, while speaking at Time Warner Investor Day, Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara announced a slate of nine films with members of DC Comics the “Justice League” including The Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg. “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” set the stage for the new films.

“Suicide Squad,” which opened over the weekend and features a cavalcade of DC villains — and brief appearances by Ben Affleck‘s Batman — pulled in a record $135 million.

Cavill, who played Superman in “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice,” will next be seen in 2017’s “Justice League.”

The “Man of Steel” sequel is a long way from getting a release date. ‘”Wonder Woman” is slated for June 2, 2017, followed by “Justice League” on Nov. 17, 2017. “Aquaman” is currently slated for July 27, 2018. A standalone “Batman” film does not yet have a date, but will likely come before the Superman sequel, the person familiar with the project said.

Warner Bros. has two untitled DC films to be released on Oct. 5, 2018 and Nov. 1, 2019, but hasn’t said what they will be.

Re: ‘Man of Steel 2020’

It has been confirmed that Man of Steel 2 is in early development and Henry Cavill would reprise his role as Superman. It was also been confirmed that Zack Snyder was working on a secret project with Geoff Johns, the co-runner of DC Films.

Now, according to a reliable source that secret project is in fact Man of Steel 2. Our source does say that the film has no script at the moment but the studio wants to release it in 2020. Production on the film should start in 2018, but only if a script is ready to be made. No word on a writer, but Geoff Johns is likely co-writing the script, as he has co-written the other films in development.

This could be the start of a “Phase 2” for the DC Extended Universe. Similar to how Iron Man started Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Zack Snyder will still be involved with Man of Steel 2, not as a director, but only as the producer. No word yet on if he is still directing Justice League 2.

Jesse Eisenberg is so far the only returning cast member as he is still contracted, but more than likely Amy Adams and Laurence Fishburne will be returning.

The last piece of information that the source was able to give us is that the dates for the 2019 and 2020 films are still set to be made, but it all depends on the success of Justice League.

Please take all of this with a grain of salt, the source is reliable and trustworthy, but none of this information has been confirmed by Warner Bros. or parties involved.

Re: AT&T Buys Time Warner for $85 Billion

Time Warner has agreed to be acquired by AT&T in a stock and cash transaction that values the entertainment conglomerate at $86 billion.

Investors will get up to $110 per share of Time Warner, roughly a 40 percent premium to where the stock traded last week, before news leaked that the two companies were in advanced talks. The deal still needs some final details hammered out between both sides, and may be officially announced before the end of the weekend, the person said.

The boards of both companies came to a preliminary agreement during meetings anchored in New York on Saturday, the person said. The agreement was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The combination of AT&T and Time Warner will create a media-telecommunications firm that is much larger than Comcast, the giant cable TV distributor that purchased NBCUniversal five years ago. It also makes AT&T a major media power player after its acquisition last year of DirecTV for $48.5 billion.

But the provider of phone services wanted to shore up its thrust into entertainment with a steady pipeline of TV shows and movies that it owns. Some say, though, that snapping up Time Warner may be a risky strategy.

"Creating value by acquiring content is tricky," Cowen analyst Doug Creutz said. "Marrying content and distribution has been tried several times in the past, with generally poor results. We view Comcast-NBCU as the exception that proves the rule."

As of Monday, the two biggest market caps among the seven entertainment conglomerates were Comcast at $154 billion and Walt Disney at $150 billion. A combined AT&T-Time Warner would boast a market cap north of $305 billion, making it a more valuable company than Comcast and Disney, combined.

Earlier on Saturday, Donald Trump expressed he would not approve the AT&T and Time Warner deal if he was elected president. "Deals like this destroy democracy," said Trump during a rally in Gettysburg, PA where he discussed what he would do in his first 100 days of presidency. The Republican nominee also said he would like to break up the Comcast/NBC Universal merger.

The AT&T deal would be subject to regulatory approval.

Analysts seem mostly confident that an AT&T-Time Warner merger will survive regulatory scrutiny, though there are some lawmakers who are likely to object — including some who approved of Comcast-NBCU but now regret their decision.

"At best, we believe a lengthy antitrust review of AT&T-Time Warner with an uncertain outcome may give both sides pause on considering a combination," said Credit Suisse analyst Omar Sheikh on Friday, prior to the board meetings.

Both sides are also closing in on a new management structure that could help AT&T absorb Time Warner's sprawling film and television assets. Former Fox top executive Peter Chernin is expected to take a major role overseeing Time Warner once the deal is completed, according to industry sources on Friday. The formalization of that role may take time to crystallize, as the proposed merger — assuming it passes federal muster — would be about a year off.

Chernin, 65, is said to be uninterested in a day-to-day executive job, but that does not preclude a significant role overseeing the combined company's content operations. or years, Chernin has been deeply involved in the media world — at times working closely with AT&T — while keeping a fairly low profile. He runs his eponymous production company, investing here, advising there, potentially putting himself in a position to run a media giant but never alighting anywhere.

Prior to Otter and the Chernin Group, best known as the company behind the rejuvenated Planet of the Apes film franchise, Chernin was an executive at Murdoch’s News Corp. for two decades. Under Murdoch, Chernin was regarded as one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood. When he ran Fox Broadcasting, he took it to No. 1 in the 18-49 demographic, and when he ran 20th Century Fox Television it became the top supplier of shows to all networks.

As head of Fox Filmed Entertainment, he oversaw production of Titanic and Avatar, which remain the top two films in history in terms of worldwide box office, combining for nearly $5 billion.

R e : S u p e r m a n L i v e s

In a recent Q&A session held via Facebook Live, writer and director Kevin Smith said he would be open to his script for the unproduced film “Superman Lives” being adapted as an animated feature. As reported by Comic Book Movie, Smith said he’d love to see an animated adaptation of the project, especially if the actors originally slated for the film participated, stating, “that would be really amazing to kind of see, like they turn it into a cartoon and get the people to do the voices. Nic Cage is still around and stuff. And I wanted Michael Rooker for my Lex Luthor so that would be amazing. Um, but, you know, I’m game.”

Smith went on to say that an adaptation would ultimately be “up to the good folks at Warner Bros. and stuff, but if they were ever to call and say hey we want to do a cartoon version of that Superman script we wrote, believe me I’d be like, that’d be dope man.” Smith’s been quite active with comic book-based projects this past year, directing episodes of “The Flash” and “Supergirl,” so an animated film could be a natural next step.

In recent years, “Superman Lives” — a scrapped ’90s revival of the Superman franchise, which was to be directed by Tim Burton — became a point of fascination for comic book fans. Stories of behind the scenes drama, scripts being leaked, and of course, images of Superman’s strange luminescent bio-suit sparked the imagination of fans, who wondered what this film would’ve looked like if it was fully realized. This interest from fans culminated in a crowdfunded documentary, “The Death of ‘Superman Lives’: What Happened?,” released last year, where director Jon Schnepp interviewed a number of key figures in the production of “Superman Lives,” including Kevin Smith himself. It’s fair to say that there’s still an audience curious about what “Superman Lives” would look like if it was realized in some capacity.

Recently, DC has been taking more risks with their animated features, releasing R-rated films like “The Killing Joke” and the upcoming “Justice League Dark” alongside the family-friend “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders,” which is a sequel to the ’60s live action “Batman” series starring Adam West. With this in mind, there may be hope that “Superman Lives” could be resurrected.

Re: Jon Peters & Superman

THR 6/19/2013:'Man of Steel': How Jon Peters Could Earn $15 Million -- for Doing Nothing
The studio mogul-turned-producer, blocked from working on the set, nonetheless scored a Kryptonite-proof check thanks to Hollywood's early adopter system.

"I took one hit before this thing," says Peters, who, in a Hollywood career that seems inconceivable in today's business, rose from hairdresser to running Columbia Pictures and launching the Batman movie franchise and relaunching Superman before an epic flame-out in the '90s. "Something about marijuana makes me talkative and communicative and present, and without it I get very quiet and watch movies and I'm kind of distracted."

For the past 2½ years, ever since I reported that he was paid between $10 million and $15 million to do absolutely nothing on 2013's Man of Steel, a figure confirmed by then-Warner Bros. chief Jeff Robinov, I've been trying to land an interview with Peters. At the time, there were rumblings that the real figure was closer to $50 million. After several rebuffs, Peters finally acquiesced, granting his first interview in 10 years. Now he sits in a living room adorned with Native American artifacts, movie posters and memorabilia as an antique pistol rests on the table. ("Yeah, there's two bullets in it," he says casually.) One of the first questions he answers is about his cut on [Superman films. He says he took home $80 million to $85 million combined for 2006's Superman Returns and Zack Snyder's Man of Steel thanks to backend granted for his role in jumpstarting the franchise in the '90s. Warners declined to comment. "I have 7.5 percent of the gross," says Peters. "Together they did [more than] a billion." He adds he was banned from the set of Man of Steel at the behest of producer Christopher Nolan: "My reputation scares these guys."

Batman | 1989On its $35 million budget, the film earned $411 million ($160 million of it overseas), demonstrating the global potential of superhero movies. Star Michael Keaton generally is praised as the best Batman ever.

Re: DC's Captain Marvel: Shazam!

The magic word could transform Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg into the director of Shazam!

Sandberg, the filmmaker behind the upcoming Annabelle 2, is in talks to direct the New Line Cinema adaptation of the DC Comics character, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Sandberg released his debut feature, Lights Out, last year, with the horror film earning more than $148 million on a $4.9 million budget.

First appearing in 1940's Whiz Comics No. 2, Shazam was originally known as Captain Marvel. The stories starred teen Billy Batson, who becomes the superhero when he utters the magic word, "Shazam!" The name is an acronym for six gods and heroes of the ancient world as well as their attributes: the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Aries, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury.

Last month, news broke that Dwayne Johnson, who has long been attached to play Shazam! villain Black Adam, would star in his own spinoff movie as the character. Johnson's big-screen take on Black Adam will see him cast as an antihero, mirroring developments in recent DC Comics by Geoff Johns.

The Black Adam movie is concurrently being developed with Shazam, which has a script by Henry Gayden.

Re: S u p e r m a n

“The sequel to Man of Steel has been developing in secret. Geoff Johns and Zack Snyder finished writing a story for the film back in November. Multiple writers were approached to turn into a screenplay including the writers from Watchmen and the 300 movie series. Brainiac will be the villain and Supergirl will be introduced to the DCEU.”